Student government leaders at the University of California, Los Angeles have been accused of discriminating against Jews and Zionists in hiring practices, according to a complaint filed this week. A petition of consideration filed to UCLA’s Undergraduate Students Association Council (USAC) Judicial Board last week alleges that USAC Cultural Affairs Commissioner (CAC) Alicia Verdugo directed her staff to discriminate against Zionists when reviewing job applications. A screenshot of a group message from Verdugo included in the petition shows her alerting her staff that Zionists were applying, and asking them to vet applicants. “PSA lots of zionists are applying — please do your research when you look at applicants and I will also share a doc of no hire list during [the] retreat,” Verdugo wrote in a group chat.  The complaint, filed by Bella Brannon, Editor-In-Chief of Ha’Am, UCLA’s student-run Jewish magazine, focused on the hiring process for approximately 25 paid positions, which include staff to help support their events. A CAC document also cited in the complaint categorizes Zionism alongside hateful ideologies, stating that any staff member can be removed from their position if they’re found to exhibit “antiBlackness, colorism, racism, white supremacy, zionism, xenophobia, transphobia, sexism, misogyny, ableism, or any/all other hateful bigoted ideologies.” UCLA has been a hotbed of anti-Semitism following Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israeli civilians, including rowdy anti-Israel protests and encampments. In August, a federal court issued an injunction against the university to cease permitting or supporting activities by anti-Semitic agitators who have obstructed Jewish students from accessing portions of the campus. The petition alleges that any student who identified themselves as Jewish were rejected in the hiring process, even if their applications did not mention Zionism, Israel, or the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. “Verdugo’s direct instruction to exclude Zionist applicants and the implied directive to be on the lookout for Jewish applicants, resulted in systemic discrimination against candidates who expressed any attachment to Judaism,” the petition states. According to Ha’Am, the application asked students: “What is an issue (social, political, etc.) that is relevant to you, and how would you like to address that through CAC?” Two rejected applicants reportedly responded to this question mentioning that they were Jewish, the first stating they care about the right to express identity and the other stating that they observe Jewish Sabbath laws. None of the students hired by the CAC discussed Judaism in their applications, according to the petition, which accuses the CAC of violating state and federal laws that prohibit discrimination based on religion or ethnicity. “By rejecting Jewish applicants and citing Zionism as a disqualifying factor, despite the applicants never explicitly referencing Zionism or their relationship to the State of Israel in their applications, Alicia Verdugo demonstrates their conflation of Judaism with Zionism,” the petition states. “In doing so, they have intentionally created a correlation between Jewish and Zionist identities to systematically discriminate against Jews, a correlation they imposed, even though many Jewish individuals naturally consider Zionism an intrinsic part of their identity.” Brannon told The Daily Wire that Verdugo and the CAC have had several troubling controversies since the October 7 terrorist attack.  “Verdugo is an unapologetic anti-Semite who has exploited her student fee-funded position to promote hatred against Jews long before her discriminatory hiring practices went viral,” Brannon said. “I am personally aware of dozens of complaints filed against CACs conduct with the university by students, parents, and even faculty.” The CAC released a statement, signed by Verdugo, two days after the October 7 attack, stating that they “honor the Palestinians on the frontlines taking their land and sovereignty back!”  In June, the CAC posted to their Instagram account, encouraging students to join their anti-Israel encampment, adding that they will “HONOR OUR MARTYRS FOREVER.” In another post, the CAC shared a statement about how they were “honored to” be part of the encampment. “We fully support ALL forms of protest and condemn the media for continuing to criminalize students, politicize a genocide, protect Zionists and police, and platform the bullshit that this university pushes out,” it read. According to Ha’Am, the CAC is accused of denying Jewish students access to an “open mic night” titled, “F*** your bans” to complain about UCLA restricting anti-Israel encampments. The CAC also reportedly blocked a Jewish student from its UCLA-affiliated X account. Ha’Am also reported that Verdugo, in 2023, told Jewish a student: “you simply don’t have the will or empathy to look inside yourself and understand that your parents are liars. They are white, and benefit from white supremacy regardless of religious affiliation.” Brannon said UCLA’s administration has failed to take action despite being alerted to the statements and actions of CAC and Verdugo.  “UCLA’s useless DEI bureaucracies and an administration supposedly tasked with protecting us have consistently failed to take meaningful action, given that her anti-Israel posts on university-affiliated channels haven’t stopped for a second since the deadliest day for Jews since the Shoah (Holocaust),” Brannon said. “By failing to hold Verdugo accountable, the university effectively emboldened her, culminating in her blatant violations of the university code and federal law through discriminatory employment practices.” Hillel at UCLA director Dan Gold said he was “appalled that the UCLA leaders would once again openly discriminate against Jewish students.”  Gold added that Hillel has been sounding the alarm for months and reported the text messages to the administration. “[T]hese text messages, if validated as real, illustrate just how brazenly anti-Jewish hate is expressed unchecked at UCLA,” Gold said. “This must end – students and faculty must be held accountable for their hateful and discriminatory actions against Jewish Bruins.” CAC and UCLA did not respond to a request for comment.

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